Howard Garrett & Alfred Merrill GOODWIN, Grant Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to USGENWEB by Frances Ball Turner
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From History of Louisiana by Chambers, pub. 1925
Vol. III, pg. 102
HOWARD GARRETT GOODWYN. The choice of a newspaper career is not guided by
motives of wealth, since few newspaper men ever attain that object. But if
the choice of a career is justified by the good it enables a man to do, no
one chose more wisely than when the late Howard Garrett Goodwyn took up,
when a boy, printing and subsequently general newspaper work. The scene of
his achievements and service of more than forty years was the Colfax in
Grant Parish, where he was the loved and esteemed editor and publisher of
the Chronicle.
He was born near Franklin, in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, April 10, 1850, a
son of Rev. Philo M. and Angeline (Moore) Goodwyn. His father, who was
born near New Albany, Indiana, November 24, 1820 and died at New Orleans,
November 15, 1882, joined the Methodist Episcopal Conference in Mississippi
in 1842, and became a charter member of the Louisiana Conference. As a
circuit rider he labored in many sections of Louisiana, organizaing
congregations and building churches, and every year of his life was marked
by achievement for the human welfare. He married, May 2, 1849, at Bayou
Sara, Louisiana, Angeline Moore, who was born in Kentucky, in January,
1828, and at the time of her marriage was the widow of Samuel Gray. To
this marriage were born three children: Howard G.; Walton Dyer, who was
born in 1851 and died in 1868; and Linus Kilgour, who was born in 1855 and
died when two years old. The mother of these children died at Plaquemine,
Louisiana, February 16, 1860. In December, 1870, Rev. Philo Goodwyn
married Amanda Fitzallen, daughter of Nathaniel Dorch and widow of A.F.
Morse.
Howard Garrett Goodwyn spent his early boyhood in the various localities
where his father had his ministry, experiencing many interruptions in his
school work. Most of his education was acquired by private study and in
time he became a Latin and Greek scholar. In 1866, at the age of sixteen,
he entered the Herald office at Camden, Arkansas, as an apprentice,
remaining there three years. During 1870-71 he was employed on the Red
River Post at Louisville, Arkansas, then traveled a few years as a
journeyman printer and in January, 1874, removed to New Orleans, where his
chief employment was on the Bulletin.
In November, 1877, the late Mr. Goodwyn removed to Colfax and took charge
of the Chronicle as an editor and publisher, purchasing the outfit from
Ragan & Nash. The Chronicle had been established in 1876 by J. M. Sweeney.
From 1877 for a period of forty-three years H.G. Goodwyn was in every
sense the editor and inspiring genius of the Chronicle, writer of its
editorials, widely read and quoted, and at all times made the paper a power
in politics and in the civic progress and development of his community. No
one was more loyal to the democratic party, and in that loyalty he never
wavered. He enjoyed a fighting participation in politics and public
affairs, and exercised his influence not only through his paper but
personally, and was never a favor seeker, working entirely for the good of
the cause. However, he filled a number of public offices, being mayor,
marshal, and councilman of Colfax, and member and president of the parish
police jury and school board.
In 1865 he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. At the
organization of a church of that denomination in Colfax on December 5,
1881, he and his wife enrolled as charter members, and he was continuously
active in both church and Sunday School the rest of his life, and was one
of the well known Methodist laymen of the state. Through all the years he
retained the sincere simplicity of his faith in a better life. This faith
had been instilled in him when a child by his sainted mother. At the age
of thirteen he penned a tribute to his mother, which deserves quoting, not
only for its merit, but also because the principles and ideals therein
expressed were illustrative of his personal character and conduct through
all his later years.
Often in my dreams I see you mother,
Watching me with a tearful eye,
Often when I speak a cross word to brother,
I think of what you said when death was nigh.
And oft when in the paths of sin I stray,
I hear a small voice say, my son, come this way,
And when by me that voice is heard amid the scenes of worldly pleasure
It stops my headlong speed to death,
And causes me to think of treasure,
The counsel you gave me while on earth.
That counsel I will respect and obey,
As long as life endures.
The substance of a tribute from Bishop J.G. Keener, given after the death
of Mr. Goodwyn, emphasized the fact that his character was without stain,
and he had the good fortune to escape even the calumny of the world.
Every one revered him as a good man who had at hearr the well being and
salvation of mankind, and under God doubtless he was the means of calling
men to the knowledge of Christ. His memory is blessed. He lived to do
good and did it.
Howard Garrett Goodwyn married, February 22, 1881, Miss Luella De Lacey,
daughter of Alfred C. Lewis. Mrs. Goodwyn resides at Colfax. She was the
mother of ten children: Angeline Evaline, of New Orleans; Alfred Merrilll,
of Colfax; Gertrude Luella, wife of T. J. Porteous, of Plaquemine;
Elizabeth, wife of J. D. Givens, of Colfax; Ethel Fitzallen, wife of J. T.
McMurry, of Colfax; Howard Keener, of Covington; Viola Valentine, wife of
J. A. McCoy, of Hodge; Philo Marvin, of Saginaw, Michigan; Grace Constance,
wife of C. P. Murphy, of New Orleans; and Lilly Belle, wife of Frank
Tacker, of Nashville, Tennessee.
Alfred Merrill Goodwyn, the present publisher of the Colfax Chronicle, was
born in that town, January 22, 1883. To the age of eleven he attended
public schools in Colfax, and the rest of his education was acquired in
what has been called one of the best of universities, the printing office
of the Chronicle. He worked for some years at the side of his father,
getting the benefit of that wise counselor's point of view, and vast store
of knowledge and experience. He has also been interested in other affairs
from time to time. At the age of seventeen he had as an addition to his
printing duties the carrying of the mail from the railroad to the
postoffice, a work that required his presence at four o'clock in the
morning. His salary for that was ten dollars a month. Before he was
twenty-one years of age he had served a term of eight months as town
marshal. Mr. Goodwyn was secretary-treasusrer of the town of Colfax from
1914 to 1920 and for three years of that time, acted as scretary and
assistant manager of the electric light plant. He was secretary of the
Woodmen of the World ten years. He is owner of the Goodwyn Insurance
Agency. He continues the Chronicle as a valiant supporter to the
democratic party in his section of the state, and his wife and son are
active workers in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He married in 1908 Miss Della Smith, daughter of Philip S. and Louvenia
(Hyde) Smith. She was born in Montgomery, Louisiana, their two children
being Howard Merrill, born in 1908 and Ruth Marcelite, who was born March
6, 1913.